Known from DE 43 00 677 A1 is a motor vehicle body that can be designed like a coupe, targa or roadster, depending on what the user wants. Above its belt line, this body exhibits a windshield segment, a rear segment and a roof segment displaceably connected with the rear segment. In the coupe configuration, the roof bridges the passenger compartment, covering an intermediate space between the windshield segment and rear segment; in the targa design, it is retracted toward the back, on the rear segment. The roof segment movement is guided with the help of lateral carriers, which can telescope in and out of channels in the rear segment, and are connected with the roof segment by swiveling levers.
Swiveling the levers lifts the roof segment over its entire expansion out of the coupe position over the rear segment, so that it then can slide toward the back over the rear segment. To enable this movement, the lateral channels of the rear segment that guide the lateral carriers and levers must be outwardly and upwardly open. This makes it difficult to provide a seal against rainwater. The roof segment lying on the rear segment in the targa configuration forms what can clearly be discerned as a foreign element that detracts from the appearance of the body.
In order to achieve the roadster configuration, the rear segment along with the C-pillars supported against the flanks of the body must be displaced toward the back and downwardly swiveled, which significantly detracts from the space available for other purposes in the tail end of the vehicle. In addition, the necessity of being able to recess the C-pillars into the body makes it difficult to give them the load carrying capacity needed to ensure an effective rollover protection.
In view of the foregoing, at least one object is to create a switchable motor vehicle body that avoids one or more of the above disadvantages of prior art. In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.